>> ellen. >> the most significant dynamic that we have to understand about how politics takes place in washington is the unbelievable power -- much greater than you can ever understand because you're not there -- the power of big money over the political process. it is a bad situation today and it is getting worse and worse. give somehow examples. the reason that we are in the midst of the economic crisis we're in right now in my view is the deregulation of wall street. you all remember that debate way back? here's what alan greenspan and all the wall street guys said, they said, if you deregulate, if you allow commercial banks to merge with investment banks, to merge with big insurance companies, we're going to have all of this capital and we're going to be creating all of this wealth and all of that will be good for the united states of america. so when i was in the house, on the house financial services committee, and i never, ever believed one word of that nonsense that helped lead the opposition to deregulation. during a 10-year period, wall street spent hundreds and hundreds and